I was watching 'Closing Bell' last week on cable (a business show) and there was a refreshingly honest statement saying that Obama has become the "Great Enabler" by rigging the economy so that we can continue to live beyond our means post-meltdown.

All of the negativity against Obama is not coming from right wing-nuts. The tea-baggers are some normal, decent, conservative people who are upset that the government is spending copious amounts of money it does not have. Though Obama has pledged not to raise taxes on those whose income is less that 250k, he will not be president forever. In 8 years, or sooner, a new president will come along and deliver the news that the middle class is going to have to pony up.

All of Obama's actions are based on the premise that consumer spending is going to continue to drive the economy as it has always done. Unfortunately that won't be the case. Approximately 3 to 3.5 Americans are out of work or underemployed. It remains to be seen whether these Americans will get the education they need to find decent paying jobs. More likely they will become permanently part of the service sector and underground economy.

The standard of living will fall and our kids will be paying more taxes for less service... But the Great Enabler will allow the baby boomers to retire in style, for a little while anyway.

I thought Obama's "change" would start with how HE handled this economic crisis -- we know very well what Dubya did. Even in the name of Perception Management (the PR art of creating reality for the consuming public) he could have decided NOT TO BAIL OUT THE BANKS 100%. By giving them say, 75 cents on the dollar we would have saved about 100 Billion.

Not saying Obama is not a good, decent man. But let us not be deluded. He is part of Democratic party and plays by the rules. Obama called Chris Dodd (D Conn., chairman of the senate banking committee) and had Dodd insert language in a bill IN FAVOR the freaking bonuses to be paid!!! Then Dodd lied like a rug for a week until Senator Olympia Snowe dimed him to CNN. When confronted he finally told the truth. This went down in late March of 09, on Obama's watch. Dodd said Treasury called and asked him to do it.

Think about the campaign. First, Kennedy delivers the Death Blow to Billary by passing the mantle of Camelot to Obama, albeit with the quid pro quo of promoting health care reform at any cost. It's a tight race well into the summer and McCain caves to the Goldwater faction of his party and appoints Palin as his running mate. This breathes new life into his campaign and then, in September, Lehman Brothers goes upside down and suddenly the economic sky is falling.... suddenly, 2 months before the election -- yeah, right! Perception Management, remember?

Don't get me wrong, I'd rather have Obama than anybody else except Howard Dean, who won the damn election for Obama as DNC chairperson, directing a fifty state strategy that treated McCain to barbed wire whipping party as he toured the country.

Think of election night at 11pm. America elects it's first black president and 300,000 people flood into Grant Park in Chicage to corronate our new King. One can almost imagine the ghosts of MLK, Medgar Evers and every other black martyr's ghost chanting "Free at last. Free at last!

The problem is that we haven't moved beyond race and Palin stirred up entire pantheon of ultra-right wingnuts -- everybody from the neo-nazis to the Birchers to the NRA. I am deeply troubled by the political climate in this country. I stand by my statement that the great unwashed and uneducated masses have been whipped into a frenzy, looking for a target of oppotunity as they suffer from this economic tragedy by the Repub/Demo death dance that Obama is part of.

Can't tell you how often I got sick of hearing how Obama has "ruined" the economy, on my US voyage. This comment is meant to be neither for, nor against him, BUT sheesh-how illogical and unfactual can such a statement be? He has only been prez for 9 months now, and a disaster was handed over to him-just as you were pointing out, Oroboros.
**********************************
Education: that which reveals to the wise, and conceals from the stupid, the vast limits of their knowledge.
Mark Twain

lamagonzo- this 'bailout' event took place months before Obama was even elected (in November). You are entitled to your own opinion of Obama, but you are not entitled to your own facts. There have been enough bailouts since then that time you can lay at Barrak's feet, but it is interesting you try to lay off (no pun intended) President Bush's wretched handling of the economy ie. tax cuts + massive government spending + war spending (which was kept 'off books') + massive bailout&executive bonus = as Obama's fault? Please!

But Vladamir Lenin did have it right, a lie repeated often enough does become the truth.

At least for some people. Especially for those who want to believe it to be true.

The Truth is realized in an instant, the act is practiced step by step.

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